My recently purchased 1.2L Copen has a very small but annoying dent on the offside rear wheel arch undoubtably caused by a supermarket trolly. Most of the dent repair people tell me that this can't be repaired as it can not be accessed from behind because there is a double skin panel. However one specialist has told me that it might be possible to access the dent from behind by removing the rear tail light assembly. Does anyone know if removing the rear light assembly will give access to the inside of the rear wheel arch? Adam has previously posted a very useful link to the French website (how to change brake light 12/11/12) on how to remove the tail light assembly but I am not able to see if there is any access to the inside of the wheel arch from there. Any advice from forum members would be much appreciated. Clive.
i think thats aloada rubbish... i rekon a dent guy with something like a hammer could hammer it out from the inside of the wheel arch with the wheel taken off then would beat back in the metal until its smooth and flat... maybe these guys just cant be bothered with the job or aint very good because i rekon the guy i know who does dents the old fashioned way with tools could probz do like i said
The trend today is to do no painting dent removal. A regular body shop would have no problem removing the dent with a slide hammer or just filling it if it's small. Paint is then needed though.
Paulie, the dent is not accessible from under the wheel arch. You can only get to part of the out skin that way. If its higher up the car the inner wing that forms the boot floor on the side and blocks your access to the out skin. This is what I think Clive is describing.
My older brother does paintless dent removal. Where panels cannot be accessed from the rear. He has a special glue. He glue's plastic pullers to the body & using a slide hammer, pulls out the dent. A simple spray of release agent removes the glue. He's done work on my car in this way. Amazing to watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0sZsQ3rI1w As for behind the brake light, If I remember correctly there is no access. However if you look in the side of the boot behind the carpets you will find holes in the inner wings which should allow access to the outer wing depending on the position of the dent.
That's interesting with the glue and slide hammer. The old fashioned way was to drill a hole in the dent and screw in a self tapper. Another way was a slide hammer with a special tip that spot welded itself to the dent. I'd never heard of that glue idea before. I've just watched a video of somebody removing a dent on Adam's link. I would have said this was impossible to remove without paint and at least some filler. I'm sceptical that this is genuine. If it is genuine this bloke has some skill. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s3-L8LpgNsI&feature=related
Rear wheel arch repair Thanks to the forum members for all the replies and advice given to this topic. The dent removal specialist was able to gain access by pulling back the carpet in the boot. There is a square shaped hole and beneath that a smaller hole which he was able to get his tools in behind the dent. As mentioned it is not possible to access it from behind the tail light. This is the end result .......... Almost imperceptible. I'm very pleased and the car is back to normal. At least until the next idiot bangs a door or supermarket trolley into the side of it ......:-((
I gave him £40. It took about 40 minutes or so. I brought the car to his workshop so that he could have a look and he repaired it there and then.
A pound a minute, that's sixty quid an hour, I'm in the wrong game. Actually that's a decent price. My wife put a hand sized dent in the rear arch of her Picasso and got a price at a local coach works used by main dealers . They quoted £800 plus vat. I told her to take it to a small back street place I knew and they did it for £180 all in. A big difference.
Yes the whole skill behind this method of dent repair is to avoid cracking the paint. It is a very skilful technique. I used to be in a local Mazda MX5 owners club and they occasionally had dent days where they would meet up as a group and have servicing sessions, do oil changes, brake pad replacement etc., and invite a dent removal specialist along to remove dents for members at a slightly reduced rate. It worked quite well.
